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Parker Itchin’ To Get 2015 Dirt Track Season Underway

March 9, 2015

Like most Canadians, John Parker is looking forward to putting another long, cold, and snowy winter behind him. For the multi-time National and Provincial Dirt Track Champion, spring can’t come quickly enough. But, with the racing season now just a little under three months away, Parker is starting to see some sunshine at the end of the tunnel.

“I’m just itchin’ to get the season underway. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much snow accumulate around my house as it did this winter. Even the ice we usually do some ice racing on around here has been buried under frozen snow,” Parker said. “One good thing maybe to come out of all this is all the snow shovelling and wood chopping I’ve had to do. It certainly helped keep me in shape. I’m still hoping to get a bit of ice racing in, but as soon as the snow is gone I’ll be hitting the dirt for a bit of pre-season training with my KX450.”

While for most of his racing colleagues winter means downtime, for Parker it is still a busy time of the year, as his workshop attests to. In addition to prepping his own racing bikes, he is a much sought-after technician who does engine work for a number of other competitors.

But it’s not all work and no play for Parker during the winter. In addition to a holiday in the Caribbean with his lovely wife and No.1 supporter and fan, Dawn, he attended the awards banquet in Medina, NY to collect his third TT Flat Track Scrambles Championship title.

“Medina is like a second home to me. I love the down-to-earth, grassroots feeling of the place and the people. The professionalism they bring to their racing series is second to none,” Parker said.

Parker, a firm believer that public relations don’t stop at the end of the racing season, attended the Toronto Motorcycle Show at Exhibition Place in February, where he was the guest of Kawasaki Canada. Parker’s new 450 Kawi flat tracker was a featured bike at the Kawasaki Canada display booth, drawing race fans and motorcycling enthusiasts alike for a closer look. Parker took time to do media interviews, sign autographs, talk some racing talk with fans, and do some socializing with industry folk.

“Networking is important to me. I like to get out to industry functions. I like chatting with fans and mechanical nerds like myself. I never get tired of shoptalk. Doing all this during the winter kind of keeps me connected. It’s a nice bridge between the off season and racing season,” Parker said.

While at the Motorcycle Show Parker met up with Pro6 Cycle’s Sandy Noce, who is the Dunlop Racing Tires distributor for Canada. Last season Parker did some testing for Dunlop’s new DT3 racing tires and as a follow-up Noce offered Parker a tire sponsorship for 2015.

“This was totally unexpected but certainly welcome. Dunlop has always been one of my favourite tires. I’m pretty excited with this development at this stage of the game and looking forward to my association with Dunlop,” Parker said. “Usually by now sponsorships are all in place, and I have been fortunate to have the support of all my sponsors from 2014 for this year, including my long time main sponsor Inglis Cycle/Kawasaki Canada. Dunlop certainly is a bonus.”

Parker will again focus the majority of his racing efforts on the CMA National series, including the Vet short track and the Pro 1/2-mile championship rounds this season. He also intends to defend his TT Flat Track Scrambles Championship title in Medina, NY as well as campaign a few selected Flat Track Canada and AMA dirt track events.